JHS Panther Analog Delay Pedal Review

JHS’ boutique effects pedals are exercises
in minimalism. Perhaps it’s because—like
a lot of great industrial design—JHS pedals
work quite well without the benefit of
visual hype and favor form over function.
From their Peel N’ Pump compressor to
their Sweet Tea overdrive, a lot of care goes
into making these pedals tick. And like
great beer aficionados, JHS clearly know
the history of their craft intimately and
build small-run stompboxes that are savvy
re-imaginings of some best-loved flavors,
with plenty of innovative tone blending and
interface features to make them stand apart.

Consider the Panther Analog Tap
Tempo Delay, which clearly sets out
to explore the terrain mapped by the
Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man.
The JHS pairs real-deal bucket brigade
analog delay circuitry with a smooth and
rich modulation circuit that aims for the
creamy shimmer and low-mid warmth of
its inspiration. But it adds functions like
tap tempo for players hooked on more
modern delays.

Bucket Head
The Panther’s minimal interface is both
cool and a potential headache. The number
of knobs certainly merits clear labels, but
apart from the single-letter representations
on the unit, knob functions are only
explained on an included information card.

Like the Memory Man, the Panther
doesn’t save presets (it’s not digital, after
all), includes a Dry Output, and maxes out
at a single second of delay time—it’s not a
ton, but it’s more than the Edge had on the
first couple of U2 records, and likely all you
need for most applications.

The Panther features an effects send/return
for patching in external effects to process the
delayed repeat signal only. The tap-tempo
control can also be used with modulation
without affecting delay time, and there are
jacks for an assignable expression pedal and
an external tap-tempo pedal to supplement
the onboard tap-tempo switch. Other cool
features include a chirp toggle, which switches
between bright-sounding repeats in the
style of a Boss DM-2, or darker, more backgrounded
repeats that, to my ears, suggest the
sound of some vintage tape delay units. The
subdivision knob (called the ratio control)
offers a choice of quarter-, dotted-eighth,
eighth-, and triplet eighth-note divisions.

The Soul of an Echo
After dialing the modulation speed and
depth completely down (it’s too bad there’s
not a way to bypass it more easily), your
two main options for shaping the delay are
delay time and delay ratio or number of
subdivisions. The ratio control (denoted by
a somewhat puzzling ? symbol) is a standard
type of rotary knob.

The delay time control, of course, has
everything to do with how these ratios
actually play out. Set to the far left, the
delay time (T) is at its longest—about a
full second of delay—and when the ratio
is also set to the far left the pedal delivers
straight quarter-note delays. It’s easy to
hear how lush and truly analog-sounding
the delays are at this setting, and each
repeat is a nice, sepia-toned reproduction
of the first that fades out sweetly with a
warm, organic degradation.

Chirping and Percolating
Setting the chirp toggle switch to the down
position is meant to make the repeats a bit
brighter and more present, but frankly, the
difference is hard to detect apart from a
more rounded top-end when the chirp is off.
Nevertheless, in either position I found the
delay to be warm and pleasing—capable of
lending a beautiful harmonic underpinning to
my clean dominant 9 and 6/9 chords. Adding
modulation brings a lovely contour to long
chords and slow figures that evokes players
like Bill Frisell, and the pedal’s wide-ranging
warble ranges from light chorus to full-on
Leslie whoosh, letting you add cool decaying
tails to whole-notes and complex chords.

Of course, delays can work as well for
rhythms as textures, and as rich and warm as
the basic sound of the Panther is, it’s every
bit as good at handling nifty delay-rhythm
passages. The dotted-eighth and triplet subdivisions
work especially well for setting up
the kind of rolling feel that the Edge used in
the famous dotted-eighth groove of “Pride
in the Name of Love,” and that Roger
Waters employed on “One of These Days.”

Depending on your tempo, this effect
can also be achieved by setting an eighth-note
subdivision and planting your accents
on the first note of each eight-note triplet
in your rhythm (tip: you’ll find yourself
playing on the downbeat only on the 1
and 4). The Panther’s vintage vibe really
works for this approach, and the addition
of some light modulation brings even more
richness and width to your sound—though
it can leave you wishing that the Panther
were equipped with true stereo delay functionality.
(Yes, it does have a dry output
for stereo field effects, but does not do
actual stereo delays.) The idea of having
these thick, richly voiced repeats panned or
even ping-ponging in stereo is almost too
dreamy to bear.

The Verdict
The Panther is a very versatile analog pedal
that modernizes a circuit inspired by the
functionality and features from one of the
most beloved delays of all time. And while
it still lacks some of the user convenience
of digital units, and the Zen approach to
graphic design makes the Panther challenging
to navigate, it makes up for those shortcomings
with gorgeous tones only real-deal
3205 bucket brigade chip sets can produce.

The Panther’s capabilities run deep, and
the rhythmic and sonic possibilities seem to
grow the more you prowl the time-domain
jungle with this sleek and hungry audio
predator. It compares very favorably to
some of today’s best delay pedals, such as
the tape-simulating Strymon El Capistan,
the updated Electro-Harmonix Deluxe
Memory Man with tap tempo, and the very
cool Diamond Memory Lane—which is
probably closest in style and spirit to the
pedal the Panther. You will pay to keep that
kind of company, and the Panther, at $499,
is an investment in genuine analog that not
everyone will be willing to make.

Still, this is a professional-grade, handmade
pedal for audiophile players looking
to tap into the universe of texture, rhythm,
and modulation that analog delay does
so well. Both in function and flavor, the
Panther channels the best of vintage sonics
and an adventurous spark of its own that’s
hard not to admire.

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